I would further refine my thoughts on poetry trying to keep the reader engaged with what I am saying. Poetry is about communication and I will try to draw parallels to our everyday lives.

Poetry is language It is born out of an oral tradition predating the written word. People told one another stories and epic stories were born from these. The universal themes:

Love won or lost, The hero (travels, triumph) good vs evil, etc. These themes were later the basis of traveling actors in the 12th century (date here) from which Shakespear had later viewed as a youngster and incorporated into his own plays expounding upon them.

Poetry is song- First sung (date here) and that singing has continued through the centuries influencing modern music. The big bang was a sound and this resonated. The world as energy everyone moving vibrating through the cosmos etc.

Poetry as well being. Teaches the mind to think differently. Science supports that people who know another language their brain functions higher. Making connections with others through any art form is good for the whole being.

I think by keeping the language fairly simple and by drawing parallels to things everyone can identify with in their own lives it will remove the tendency to over explain ideas. The basic principles of artistic expression such as curiosity or the ability or willingness to identify with aspects of a poem are a good jumping off points. I want to show a language alive for the reader to have it right there front and center. As I’ve indicated above there is some history but these will be juxtaposed with examples from today. The universal themes such as love or hate are still relevant to today and one of the reasons people are online. There is certainly in our own narratives a need to cajole, to antagonize. It’s where protagonist comes into the picture. In any drama, there is something happening some resolve whether in the mind or in action, so I will show this with examples from modern writers, entertainers, intellectuals, artists etc. Again, trying through many examples of how words can effect our interpretation of ourselves and the world around us.

Juan Felipe Herrera was born in Fowler, California, on December 27, 1948. The son of migrant farmers, Herrera moved often, living in trailers or tents along the roads of the San Joaquin Valley in Southern California. As a child, he attended school in a variety of small towns from San Francisco to San Diego. He began drawing cartoons while in middle school, and by high school was playing folk music by Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie.

His interests in indigenous cultures inspired him to lead a formal Chicano trek to Mexican Indian villages, from the rain forest of Chiapas to the mountains of Nayarit. The experience greatly changed him as an artist. His work, which includes video, photography, theater, poetry, prose, and performance, has made Herrera a leading voice on the Mexican American and indigenous experience.

“That’s what art is, he said, the story of a life in all it’s particularity, It’s the only thing that really is particular and personal. It’s the expression and, at the same time, the fabric of the particular. And what do you mean by the fabric of the particular? I asked, supposing he would answer: Art. I was also thinking, indulgently, that we were pretty drunk already and that it was time to go home. But my friend said: What I mean is the secret story…the secret story is the one we’ll never know, although we’re living it from day to day, thinking we’re alive, thinking we’ve got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn’t matter. But every damned thing matters! It’s just that we don’t realize. We tell ourselves that art runs on one track and our lives on another we don’t even realize that’s a lie.”

After reading Rabiner’s prologue and introduction, I began to think of my idea in a different light. Her information regarding how trades are stocked on the shelves of booksellers was very enlightening. However, I was not caught completely off guard by this. We live in an era where not only book sales but all other forms of human interaction have been codified, listed, tested and schemed for a sustained and lasting impact on future sales. “The books the thing.”

Some of her main points are things I have thought about time and time again and have been the reason why I’d never ventured to write anything before. Well, at least, nothing aimed at serious publication. I also considered changing my topic in light of this new information to investigate how we as human beings are becoming increasingly more like the products which sit upon the shelf but I decided to instead stick with my initial idea however abstract, because: 1. I feel it’s very important and 2. because I like a challenge.

In fact, while I do enjoy writing I am not wedded to it and I believe this helps me to be more flexible in the molding of my ideas into something more easily digestible. I’m not saying that I want to write for the lowest common reader, (though this might well have given me the opportunity to include drawings and I Looove to draw, but I digress.) nor do I want to appeal to the academic snob either. The fact that I never really know who my audience is has always been a liberating force to me as a writer. After reading Mrs. Rabiner’s intro, I can see I’m going to have to construct a very unusual bunch of scenarios if I want to keep myself and my potential readers interests, whoever they may be. Perhaps I am completely wrong and it is closer to the bottom of the scale after all. Sharpening up those colored pencils now.

1. What Your Book Will be About and Why Would Someone Would Want to Read (Buy) It

This is a book idea having to do with poetry; it’s history, the creation of poetry and why this matters in our world. By delving into the origins of poetry I will try to show how it has changed from an oral tradition to the writing of verse and how this has shaped literature. I will use the act of creating poetry as a way to illustrate its very nature as a form, and spotlight some of the key poems and poets through the history of the written word.

5. How You Would Describe Your Book’s Content

The opening chapter will deal with the origins of poetry. This will entail some of the earliest recorded instances of poetry which will largely be in the form of song. Which cultures stood out in their use of verse/song and why? Why did people sing these stories/songs? How did these stories and tales pass down through generations and what did this say about the culture? Other chapters could be:

Ancient culture and the shock of the new

Music of poetry and the poetry of music

Outlaw poets

Poetry as a new voice

words as weapons

The modern visits the past

Verse and the restructuring of class

PROJECT PART II

After reading Rabiner’s prologue and introduction, I began to think of my idea in a different light. Her information regarding how trades are stocked on the shelves of booksellers was very enlightening. However, I was not caught completely off guard by this. We live in an era where not only book sales but all other forms of human interaction have been codified, listed, tested and schemed for a sustained and lasting impact on future sales. It seemed strange that her quote at the very beginning of the book bears little resemblance to what amounts to pure marketing strategy; “The books the thing.”

Some of her main points are things I have thought about time and time again and have been the reason why I’d never ventured to write anything before. Well, at least, nothing aimed at serious publication. I also considered changing my topic in light of this new information to investigate how we as human beings are becoming increasingly more like the products which sit upon the shelf but I decided to instead stick with my initial idea however abstract, because: 1. I feel it’s very important and 2. because I like a challenge.

In fact, while I do enjoy writing I am not wedded to it and I believe this helps me to be more flexible in the molding of my ideas into something more easily digestible. I’m not saying that I want to write for the lowest common reader, (though this might well have given me the opportunity to include drawings and I Looove to draw, but I digress.) nor do I want to appeal to the academic snob either. The fact that I never really know who my audience is has always been a liberating force to me as a writer. After reading Mrs. Rabiner’s intro, I can see I’m going to have to construct a very unusual bunch of scenarios if I want to keep myself and my potential readers interests, whoever they may be. Perhaps I am completely wrong and it is closer to the bottom of the scale after all. Sharpening up those colored pencils now.